Great Rolls, Forgotten Wine List
Downtown · New Haven · Japanese / Sushi · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · July 3, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Kamakura Sushi’s wine list and gave it The Lazy List — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Take Vibe Match and we’ll tell you what to order here.
Wingman Metrics
The wine list at Kamakura Sushi is an afterthought — a few lines wedged into a menu that really wants you to order sake or a Sapporo. There's nothing wrong with that priority, but if you came hoping to find something interesting in a glass, you're going to be disappointed fast. This is a sushi spot, not a wine bar, and the list makes no effort to pretend otherwise.
We're talking four to six wines, all of them generic California house pours with no producer names worth mentioning. There's a House Chardonnay, a House Cabernet Sauvignon, and a small cluster of similarly anonymous bottles ranging from $28 to $45. No sake-adjacent wine picks, no crisp Grüner or Muscadet that might actually flatter the fish — just bulk California defaults that could've come off any restaurant supply shelf. The regional focus here is sake and beer, which is honestly the right call, but it leaves wine drinkers with zero interesting options.
You get roughly four to six by-the-glass options, priced between $7 and $10 — which sounds affordable until you realize you're paying per-glass prices that outpace what a full bottle of the same bulk wine costs at retail. The rotation doesn't rotate. What's there today was probably there six months ago and will be there six months from now.
House Chardonnay — $8/glass
At $8 it's the cheapest entry point on the list, and if you're having a light roll or sashimi and just want something cold and white, it won't actively hurt you. Relative to the rest of the list, it's the least bad option — which is faint praise but the honest truth here.
House Cabernet Sauvignon
Nobody orders Cab at a sushi restaurant, and for good reason — it's a clumsy match for delicate fish. But if you're the person who ordered the beef teriyaki or a heavier roll with plenty of sauce, this is the only red on the list and it does the job without embarrassing itself.
House Cabernet Sauvignon
At $8 a glass with a retail comparable sitting around $9 for the whole bottle, you're paying a 267% markup on something that was never meant to be taken seriously. Order the sake. Seriously. Order the sake.
House Chardonnay + Kamakura Roll
The Chardonnay is neutral enough that it won't fight the specialty roll's flavors — it won't enhance them either, but at least you won't cringe. Think of it as a palate-neutral placeholder while you enjoy the actual reason you came here.
The Bottom Line
Kamakura Sushi is a solid neighborhood sushi spot and you should absolutely go — just order sake, beer, or a soft drink and leave the wine list alone. The wine program exists in name only, and no amount of goodwill toward the kitchen changes that.
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Crowd Pleasers
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Grocery Store
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